Objective
The objective is to evaluate the importance of habitat fragmentation for the genetic structure of an animal population.
Natural habitat is disappearing so rapidly so that in most areas only fragments remain. This has dramatic effects on the fauna and flora, one of which is that populations become smaller and habitat fragmentation increases. This leads to a reduction of within species genetic diversity. To apply theoretical models to the calculation of this loss, one needs to know the actual population size. This is determined partially by the size of the breeding population but even more by the between individual variation in lifetime reproduction.
An alternative way to determine the loss of genetic variation in populations is to measure it directly. In order to manage populations, it is necessary to know how rapidly genetic variation is lost. At present, such information is not available in natural populations. In order to formulate European Community policy concerning the management of natural resources and the conservation of endangered species, one has to know which factors affect loss of genetic diversity. In particular which habitat or population ratio is required to conserve a reasonable amount of genetic variation in natural populations.
The red squirrel is used as a model organism because it is sufficiently abundant to allow adequate sample sizes and has only limited dispersal capabilities between woodland fragments so that populations with different degrees of isolation can be studied. This dispersal is measured by mark and recapture.
The objectives of the project are 3-fold:
to produce single locus probes for deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA) fingerprinting in red squirrels;
to use these probes for measuring allelic variation in natural red squirrel populations in woodlots of different size;
and red squirrels have recently been introduced in 2 wooded areas of different sizes so that the genetic structure of established populations can be compared with those from new but expanding populations. This is particularly relevant as a model for studying the recovery of a small mammal population after a crash.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
2610 WILRIJK (ANTWERPEN)
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.